Appeal to trace absconder, Enfield

Police are appealing for information to trace a man who has absconded from a psychiatric clinic in Edmonton on the morning of Friday, 20 November.

Reece Burton, 25, was last seen at 11:20hrs at the North London Clinic, Edmonton, Enfield where he was on permitted ground leave. He is being detained under the Mental Health Act after being convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent.

Burton was last seen wearing a blue t-shirt, blue jeans, a black baseball cap, a grey parka jacket and a pair of grey trainers.

He has a distinctive tattoo on the right side of his neck with the initials ‘RB’.

Burton is considered dangerous and should not be approached by the public.

He was known to previously frequent Havering, Waltham Cross and Haringey.

Any information as to his immediate whereabouts should be passed to Metropolitan Police Service on 999.

Any non urgent information can be passed to Enfield CID on 0208 345 3353, Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 and the police non-emergency line on 101.

Our Aims: About Us

To support users and ex-users of psychiatric services in the Manchester area. The organisation provides a forum for services users to have a bona fide say in planning and provision of mental health services.

Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

Protesters took to the streets of King’s Lynn to voice their anger at what they described as “continuous” cutbacks to mental health services in west Norfolk.

Mental health cuts protest

A protest march against cuts to mental health services and the Fermoy Unit at the QEH took place in King's Lynn town centre. Picture: Matthew Usher.

More than 100 campaigners marched from The Walks through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema.

Peter Smith, former parliamentary candidate for south-west Norfolk said: “We are in the fight of our lives here.”

The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Unit, an in-patient NHS facility in Lynn for mental health, which campaigners say faces an uncertain future. The unit was briefly closed to new admissions earlier this month, but reopened last week, albeit with fewer beds.

Mr Smith said: “In my lifetime we have never had to fight like this, but what is the alternative?”

But Debbie White, director of operations for Norfolk at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said there were now no plans to axe the Fermoy Unit.

She added: “It is right that mental health services should be valued and funded on the same level as acute health services, and it is understandable people feel passionate about the Fermoy Unit remaining open.”

Labour party activist Jo Rust insisted the issue would not disappear. She said: “They have been talking about closing it for a long time. We will fight and we will not let them do that.”

Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, said: “We are here to protest against the continuous cuts to the mental health service, we think it’s unacceptable. My younger brother suffers from poor mental health and has to travel to London... That is to the detriment of my family because we have to pay for him to go down by train every single month.”